The farmhouse above, located on the River Road several miles north of Coldwater, Michigan, on the west side of Morrison Lake, belonged to Anna Gruner Adolf. It is believed to have been built some time between 1857 and 1860. The photo above was taken in 1910. It is not believed to be still standing, nor is it not known exactly when it was demolished.

Anna (1819-1891), the fourth child of Franz von Gruner and Katharina Bergmann, married Philipp Adolf in 1839. She had six children: Philipp, Anna, Lena, Willard, Pauline and Augusta. Lena died in infancy. Her husband Philipp died of tuberculosis in 1854, and Anna was urged by her brothers to join them in America. However, she contracted tuberculosis herself, so she was not able to get to America until 1856. She brought four of her children with her. Her eldest son, Philipp, had been sent over in the care of friends the year before.

In 1855, Anna’s brother Wenzel purchased 80 acres in Girard Township from Henry Vanhinning, and later turned it over to her. Philip and his brother Willard, both teenagers by then, told many years later how they had cleared the land by themselves. It is not known exactly when the house was built or who built it. [Note that when they came to America the name Adolf was changed to Adolph, and Philipp became Philip.]

One by one the children, all but one, married and moved to their own homes. Philip, who married Clara Fox in 1868, built his house on the same property, which he continued to farm. Augusta, the one who stayed at home with her mother, married Pascal Morrison in 1895, several years after her mother’s death.